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Blogging Q&A

Chasing Rubies ChasingPearls13:29:00

I asked you on snapchat(chasingrubychat) and twitter(@chasingrubies2) to send in any and all blogging related questions and boy did you send a lot! I combined a lot of them and there were a lot that were basically the same question. So I hope I answered all your questions and I hope that this post is helpful!

How to think of things to write about?

I usually do a big brainstorming session ahead of each month, I'll see what new products I have or what I can review. Some months are easier than others, October and December are usually good months because you can have lots of different themed posts because of Halloween, Autumn and Christmas. Sometimes if I feel I'm suffering from a little bit of bloggers block, I'll either ask my audience what they would like to see or I'll just step back from all things blogging and social media, take a little break and I always come back refreshes and inspired.

How do you keep motivated?

Well I'm very passionate about blogging, I love to write so I have an advantage there. It can be tough to balance everything sometimes, but I just love the feeling when I hit publish on a post! I also get really motivated when I get good feedback from my readers. My advice is to only write when you feel inspired, don't force yourself to write. Take breaks and go out into the real world, that way you won't get overwhelmed and lose motivation.

Why did I start blogging? Any tips for someone who's starting out?

I started blogging because it was part of a college assignment. We had to write two posts about our module and one on absolutely anything we wanted. I wrote about my first two months in college. Afterwards I kinda felt like I wanted to write more, after reading other people's blogs for quite some time I eventually set up my own! When you're starting out, take some time to build up your blog, find your niche and your blogging voice, don't worry about stats or what everybody else is doing just focus on you and your blog. I wrote a post recently on what NOT to do when you start blogging if you're interested.

Any tips on getting traffic to your website?

Promote promote promote! Social media is so powerful and can really help your blog take off so start building up your social media platforms and use them to promote your posts. Also give readers that do visit you website, a reason to come back or to read more. At the side of my blog, there's always an archive list as well as a popular posts feature.

What do you wish you knew when you started blogging?

When I started blogging I was comparing my blog to others who were full time bloggers. I would often feel like I wasn't good enough, my stats weren't high enough etc. But I was comparing my two month old blog to blogs that had been around 5+ years! I was also constantly worried about people I knew in real life finding my blog. The fear of being myself was very real and stopped my blog growing because I was too afraid of what people I knew three years ago would think.

How to get the confidence to share your blog & promote it?

My answer above is quite apt for this question too. As I said, I was terrified of people finding my blog when I started out. But what surprised me was that when people did come across it, they actually reached out and said they loved it and asked advice on certain products or how they should do things, so don't be so hard on yourself! You really do just have to feel the fear and do it anyway. Use the power of social media to promote your blog, it's crazy how much it helps!

Any tips for getting your snapchat out there?

Snapchat is all about engagement. Engage with others, give other people shoutouts because you might get some in return, take part in some of the challenges that happen, promote your snapchat on other platforms. Give people a reason to follow you. If there's a particular day that you get a lot of engagement or new followers, try figure out why that was, what did you do that day to get high engagement, once you figure out what your audience want, do more of that. Ask your audience questions and put in the time and effort to chat to them, they'll probably end up talking to their friends who will follow you and they'll tell their friends and so on.

How do you grow your blog audience?

This is a tough one, for some people they seem to be an overnight success and have a million followers after a month, please know that this is very very very rare. For 99.9% of us, it takes years to build a big audience. Create content that you would like to read, give people a reason to follow you, take good pictures and have a nice blog design that suits your blog. Utilise social media and try to go out and network in the real world, go to events etc. It takes time and it happens a different way for everyone.

How do you get invited to events & work with PRs?

Engage with PRs online. If you write a post reviewing a product that the PR agency represent, tag them. Try and make yourself seen without spamming. If there's a particular event coming up that you'd really like to go to, email them and ask. But don't just say can I come to the event, tell them who you are, what you do and why you think you should be there. In terms of working with PRs if there's any agency that represent some brands that you really want to work with, ask the PR out for a coffee and have a chat. It's much easier to build up a relationship in real life than it is online. If you are not in a position to go and have a coffee, create a media kit and send it to the PR along with a pitch as to why you want to work with a brand and what ideas you have to collaborate.

How often should you blog?

As often as possible but be consistent. Two or three times a week would be pretty good, the more you blog, the faster you'll grow your blog. In saying that content is king, it's better to blog once a week on the same day at the same time and have a fantastic post rather than 6 times a week with 'just ok' posts. Quality is better than Quantity.

What's the best platform for blogging?

This is completely up to you. I chose blogger as the big bloggers that I was reading when I started out were all using blogger, so I did too. I have to use wordpress for college and it just seems way to complicated for me personally. But I think it's nearly 49% of the world's websites are built with wordpress so that is definitely something to take into account. I'd recommend trying both wordpress and blogger out, see which interface you like more and go from there.

Any advice on taking pictures?

Try to have a nice background, clean clear photos that are well thought out, aren't blurry and have good lighting!

How do you make time to blog when you're really busy?

It's all about priorities and time management. I always try to do at least an hour of scheduling every week, even if I don't have new blog posts going up, I promote older ones that I've wrote. Keep your social media going even if you're blog goes quiet. Try to fit in some time to blog each week, maybe pick a specific evening that's your blogging evening. If you want to have a successful blog, then you simply HAVE to put hard work and time in. Life can get in the way sometimes and things that are out of our control can take over, but there are 168 hours in a week, try and put two or three aside for blogging.

Who inspires you/ who influences you as a blogger?

I am inspired by so many people, I read an insane amount of blogs. Zoella, Lily Pebbles, Vivianna Does Makeup, Retro Flame, The Makeup Fairy, It's Cherry Sue, Too Dolly Makeup and so many more inspire me with their positivity and passion to succeed.